


Reunion

by chelseagirl



Category: Alias Smith and Jones
Genre: AU, Angst and Feels, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-26 11:47:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13235079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chelseagirl/pseuds/chelseagirl
Summary: Jed Curry has really made something of his life since he left the Valparaiso Home for Waywards, and now he's on to new triumphs, newly married and newly joining the federal marshals in Wyoming.  Only if the rumors are true, his childhood friend Hannibal Heyes may be leading the gang the marshals are after . . .For Small Fandom Fest on Dreamwidth.  Prompt:  AU where one or both of them are lawmen.  https://smallfandomfest.dreamwidth.org/





	Reunion

Jedediah Curry looked into the mirror, and straight at the new deputy marshal’s badge that gleamed on his lapel. It had been a long, hard road from the Valparaiso Home for Waywards, but he’d gotten everything he’d promised himself: a decent education, a chance to see something of the world (Philadelphia, once, even), and a lovely and goodhearted bride. And now he’d landed the best job he could imagine – one that had him back out West, spending a fair bit of time out of doors, and that allowed for a decent amount of target practice.

Life couldn’t be better.

Well, that wasn’t precisely true. Since he and Felicity had arrived in Wyoming, he’d been haunted by the ghost of an old friend. Not a ghost, precisely – as far as he knew, Hannibal Heyes was still alive. But when they’d parted ways, six or seven years ago now, it hadn’t been on good terms.

Heyes was . . . even in childhood, Jed had always called the slightly older boy by his last name, since he wasn’t very fond of his first . . . he was brighter than anyone else Jed knew. And that was a problem.

He was so much brighter than anyone else at the Valparaiso Home that there wasn’t much they had to teach him that he hadn’t known already. And nothing much they could do to punish the boys or keep them in line, that Heyes couldn’t think and scheme his way around.

Curry knew he had nothing to be ashamed of in the brains department, either. His steadier, less mercurial intelligence served him better, in that he was able to slow himself down and think things through from the viewpoints of others, while Heyes simply vaulted over and around. The disadvantage to that was that Heyes often didn’t understand why things were the way they were, when they just seemed stupid and slow to him. He could, as they say, talk the hind legs off a donkey and then get it to go for a walk afterwards, which helped him in becoming a leader of the more discontented boys in the Home, and certainly helped with the young ladies when they were out on their own, afterwards, after running away. But it did not endear him to anyone in power, who seemed to be almost the only ones who could resist that silvery tongue. A gift for leadership, and an almost inbuilt defiance towards authority. As an orphan with no resources, no wonder Hannibal Heyes had ended up on the other side of the law. If he’d come from money, he might well be building those railroads he was, instead, rumored to be robbing.

There had been tales and whisperings about his old friend, of course, but last Jed Curry had heard, Heyes was in Colorado, ranging down to New Mexico. A little too close for comfort. But since arriving in Wyoming, he’d both feared, and secretly hoped, that he might see him again.

A small noise of a throat being cleared behind him, and Jed turned to see his wife standing there, proffering a small canvas bag. “Lunch for your first day,” she explained. “And extra pie to share with the others.” Felicity Curry was small, dark, and very pretty, with blue eyes almost as intense as Jed’s own – though he thought them far lovelier. She’d been a farmer’s daughter in Ohio, where he’d ended up after heading East when he and Heyes had split up so acrimoniously. Her family had helped him get an apprenticeship, to a gunsmith, and to get a solid education at a workingman’s cooperative in the nearest town to them. And when the idea of joining the marshals become something which drew him more and more, they supported him completely, even though it meant he would be taking their daughter far away from them.

Felicity was both very practical and yet dreamily imaginative, at once, and Jed could hardly remember a time, anymore, when he hadn’t been in love with her.

*****

The first day with the marshals went well, and the day after that and the weeks after that. Marshal Harlan was a fair man, and dedicated to his work. He expected no less from his men, but he also encouraged them to spend time with their wives and families, so that they’d have all the more understanding of what it was they were aiming to protect.

It wasn’t until near the end of the first month that he was there, that Curry heard about the Devil’s Hole Gang, and its recent change in leadership. 

“Young fella, just a little bit older than you, Jed, taking over from Big Jim Santana, who’s on his way to the Federal Penitentiary for a stretch.”

Something about that made Jed feel uneasy, though he couldn’t pinpoint why. Or rather, he thought ruefully, he could pinpoint exactly why.

“Any idea what his name is?”

“Hmm,” said the Marshal. “Can’t rightly remember. Clever young fella, though. Good with safes and explosives, obviously brighter than your average outlaw. Might actually provide us with some challenge.” He smiled.

“It’s not . . .” Curry hesitated.

“It’s, uh, Heyes,” said another deputy, Phil Bradley. “Hannibal Heyes. With two e’s.”

Curry felt his stomach sink. _Of all the states and territories west of the Mississippi, of course I had to end up in the same one as Heyes._

“Devil’s Hole’s a natural stronghold,” explained Harlan. “Even if we could get in, we’d never get out again. And the gang does have a reputation for trying to minimize the harm they do to the folks they rob. So we’ve focused our energies elsewhere, though we thought capturing James Santana was going to break the back of the gang. But we didn’t know about this new fella.”

 _Don’t speak. Don’t think. Don’t even breathe._ Jed thought to himself.

“I’ve heard rumors this one’s naturally vicious,” said Bradley.

“Much more dangerous than Santana,” added another deputy.

“That’s not true,” said Curry, before he could stop himself.

“How do you know?” asked Bradley.

“I,” he took a deep breath, “I grew up with him. Stuck close together in the orphanage, after our families were killed in the border wars. We parted company a ways back when it seemed like we had different ideas about the importance of the law. But he’s not vicious. Too smart for his own good, but not vicious.”

“If you know Heyes, could we use you to get close to the gang? You could convince him that you’ve gone over to his way of thinking?” asked Bradley.

“No,” said Curry very firmly, his blue eyes hard.

Harlan looked at Bradley in disgust. “Being a marshal is an honorable thing. We might send someone in like that among strangers, but not ask him to betray one of his oldest friends. At least not while I’m in charge.” He turned to Curry. “If you want to stay behind when we do go after them, no one will think the worse of you.”

Jed shook his head. “Heyes wouldn’t expect that. I won’t betray him, under false pretenses, but I won’t sit back and let you all go in to danger without me, either. I might even be able to reason with him.”

“All right, son,” Harlan said. “I’ll be sure to let you know, when we’ve got a plan.”

*****

Several weeks passed. On more than one occasion, Jed was tempted to confide in Felicity. But he’d told her very little about his early life, preferring to consider that things had started anew when he’d headed eastwards towards Ohio, and the love of his life. He wasn’t even sure how he’d begin the conversation.

Meanwhile, she was making their new house into a home. It was a small place, but snug and well-constructed, and there was a lovely view out of the front windows.

As usual, she kissed him as he left for work that morning, and handed him his lunch – a lunch that was always the envy of the other men. And she was smart, too, always reading. There wasn’t a day that passed when he didn’t think about how lucky he was.

“All right, men,” said Marshal Harlan a little later that same morning, brandishing a telegram. “Today is the day we ride against the Devil’s Hole Gang. They hit a train a bit outside of their usual hunting grounds, and we should have time to intercept them before they get back to their home territory.” He looked at his men. “There are nearly as many of us as there are of them, and we’re to be supplemented by the sheriff’s men from several jurisdictions between here and there. They’ll join us as we ride.”

Curry had a sense of unreality as they rode out. He wasn’t sure what to expect, but he had an underlying sense of dread in the pit of his stomach. Time passed strangely for him, seemingly both quick and slow at once. Would he actually encounter his old friend, and what would come of it? How would he respond?

It was a matter of hours later that he found out.

It was all a bit of a haze afterwards. The lawmen and the outlaws came upon each other in a quiet valley somewhere far from Devil’s Hole itself. Someone shot first – Curry could never remember who – and then there was general chaos as rifles and shotguns and Colts all dominated the scene. He thought he recognized Heyes in the distance, but he couldn’t be sure. Jed was an excellent shot, especially with his sidearm, but the marshals had given him a rifle to use on this raid. He aimed to unseat the horsemen, preferably to wing them and send them flying, at which he mostly succeeded. Once, though, he winced when he realized he’d shot a horse from under its rider. A beautiful animal. And then there was a sudden impact, and he knew nothing more.

When he woke up, he was in a strange place. It looked like a bunkhouse; an unfamiliar man, looking pale and moaning softly, was to his right.

“Well, he’s awake. You gave us quite a scare, Jed.” It was Hannibal Heyes, a little older than when Jed Curry had last seen him, but otherwise unchanged.

“Where am I? Is this --“

“Devil’s Hole. You’ve managed to infiltrate our secret outlaw hideaway. Impressive.” That impish grin, familiar from earliest childhood onwards.

“And I just had to get shot to do it.” Jed began exploring, very tentatively, to see where he was wounded.

“One in the shoulder, one in the thigh. You’ll be all right once you heal up. There’s a doctor a few settlements away who lets us abduct him occasionally – all the folks in his town believe it’s against his will, but he had a brother who went bad, so he has a soft spot for us. He’s had a look at you. The bullets came out easily. I wish I could say the same for Hank, there.” Heyes’ glance turned to the man in the next bed.

“What was the . . . how did . . . obviously I’m here, so the marshals didn’t capture you all.”

“Two of our men were taken, a couple on your side were wounded, and obviously Hank. No fatalities, as far as I’m aware.”

“I thought it was going to be the final stand between the two sides.”

Heyes shrugged. “We were pretty evenly matched. No point in a lot of needless killing, now is there? Pity I can’t convince you to stay around – with your shooting, the balance would shift to our side without a doubt.” He paused for a moment. “Can I? Convince you to stay around, that is?”

Jed shook his head. “’Fraid our views on certain things just don’t match up.”

“Can’t blame me for trying.” Heyes smiled, that broad infectuous grin. “I’ve missed you, even if you _do_ have those ridiculous notions on law and order. The marshals had better understand their good fortune in getting you. . . . oh, and speaking of getting you, I see your ring, there. Who’s the lucky lady?”

“Her name’s Felicity, she’s the best girl in the whole wide world, and I wish you could meet her.” Surprisingly, Curry thought, it was true. He’d like it, if his two favorite people liked each other.

“Under the circumstances, that’s not likely,” Heyes acknowledged. “Still, true love – I’m glad you found it. You deserve another shot at family, at happiness.”

“How ‘bout you? Anyone special?”

“Oh, not with the life I lead. Maybe someday when I’m an old retired outlaw living on my ill-gotten gains in South America.” But his gaze darkened for a moment. They both knew that the chances of Heyes making it to that point were slim.

But Curry desperately wanted to lighten the mood again. He’d forgotten just how much he’d enjoyed his old friend’s company. “Better start learnin’ Spanish then.”

“Yeah, kid, I guess I better.”

Jed winced. “Not that much younger’n you.”

“Funny how two years seemed an eternity, back then, eh?”

Jed knew his friend wasn’t talking about the later years they’d shared, but the earlier ones, from when their families were alive.

His wounds, as they would, took some time in healing, and he was largely confined to his bed for awhile. Hank’s condition improved, as well, but he seemed disinclined to conversation with an outsider. But Heyes visited him regularly, reminiscing about the past, and talking about the present in only the most general of manners. No need to reveal any secrets that the marshals might find useful.

As Curry gradually began to grow stronger, he needed exercise. Several of the gang members took turns accompanying him as he wandered around the Hole; Heyes himself joined him most often of all. Jed couldn’t help but wonder if he wasn’t trying to recruit him, after all. Except there were no wives in Devil’s Hole, and he knew that Heyes understood how important Felicity was to him. And even if they’d made an exception, he couldn’t see raising a family here.

Anyway, he still believed in what the marshals were doing. Law and order were essential to the spread of civilization.

Although he didn’t find all of the men in the Devil’s Hole gang equally agreeable, he could see that quite a few of them were really fairly good fellows – not the worst lot of outlaws around, by a long shot. The truly nasty ones must not have found Devil’s Hole especially welcoming, which he suspected was partly down to Heyes’s leadership. And there was something very appealing about the place itself.

But as he got stronger, he knew the time for leaving was drawing near. He wondered what Felicity knew, how worried she might be. What had she been told?

And finally, blindfolded, he was led out of the Hole, by Hannibal Heyes himself. Far away, his eyes were uncovered, and Heyes handed him the reins to his horse. The two old friends looked at each other, knowing this was probably the last time they would ever see one another in this lifetime.

Heyes looked away, and then looked back quickly. “I’m sorry it happened this way, but I’m not sorry we got to spend some time together. I know we parted on bad terms, and there’s never been a day since that I haven’t regretted the things I said to you.”

“You’re still the best friend I’ve ever had,” Curry replied. “But we’d best not risk finding ourselves on opposite sides again. Think I’ll see if the marshals out in Oregon are hiring. You keep outta the Pacific Northwest, you hear?”

Heyes nodded. “And if you ever change your mind, you know I’d be glad to have you.” Again, he looked away, apparently finding the horizon of acute sudden interest. Then he turned back, and with a wicked grin said, “You give that pretty wife of yours a kiss for me, all right?”

“How do you know she’s pretty? I haven’t shown you a picture.”

“’Cause I know you.” Heyes winked.

“I’ll give her one for myself, how ‘bout that?” Jed Curry smiled at his friend one last time, and then rode away from his past and towards his future.

He never saw Hannibal Heyes again, except for one time, years later, when he’d taken Felicity and the children to San Francisco for a special treat. And there, walking down a street near Union Square, he could have sworn he saw Heyes off in the distance, among the crowd.

He turned to Felicity, wanting to tell her. By now she’d heard the stories of his childhood, and she’d often expressed a wish to meet the outlaw who’d been her lawman husband’s closest friend. But when he looked again, Heyes wasn’t there, and he was never quite certain if he’d really seen him or not.

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt said "AU where one or both of them are lawmen" and I had to go for the angst, by putting them on the opposite sides of the law. But it's a friendly kind of angst, really.
> 
> There's one place in the story where Heyes calls Curry "kid" with a small k. That's not a typo -- since Jed's not an outlaw, I figured that he wouldn't have that "Kid" nickname, but I had to fit it in somewhere.
> 
> This is, by the way, the first brand new ASJ story that I've posted to AO3 thus far -- I've been reposting older stories, and though this isn't the first new one I've written since getting back into the fandom, it's a standalone so it's not queued up after reposts in my ongoing series. Please let me know what you think!


End file.
